What began as a cou­ple of kayak­ers pickin’ tunes on the back deck after a long day on the river, has grown into a huge com­mu­nity cel­e­bra­tion in to raise funds for the Bend Pad­dle Trail Alliance and their efforts to trans­form the Col­orado Bridge Dam into Oregon’s first white­wa­ter play­park. High­lights include kayak, canoe and stand up pad­dle board demos through­out the late after­noon, local and regional acoustic, blue­grass and Amer­i­cana acts in the evening, micro­brews from Bend’s best brew­eries, food carts, non-profit infor­ma­tion tables and more.

With the pas­sage of Bond Mea­sure 9–86 in Novem­ber of 2012, the major­ity of fund­ing was secured for Bend Parks & Rec to con­struct a safe pas­sage for tubers and a white­wa­ter play park in place of the mill-era dam below the Col­orado Bridge. The BPTA has promised to raise $900K through grants, fundrais­ing and pri­vate dona­tions to fund the white­wa­ter fea­tures of the project. Cur­rently they have $300K more to go and they need your help. All funds raised at Pickin’ & Pad­dlin’ go towards this cause.

More information and our initial line up:

$5 and children 12 and under are free
Pint glasses are $10 and come with two drink tickets for those 21 and older
Demos from 4 – 7 p.m.
The opener begins playing at 5 p.m. and the headliner is done by 9 p.m.